The Light Of The Dream
by Alan Spencer
Summary: Louise's summoning ritual reaches out for a protector... but what answers is The Darkness.


**The Light Of The Dream**

Louise had started the summoning ritual filled with false confidence, backed up by desperation. But after her second attempt, she had finally felt it all come together, just like it was supposed to do. She stared at the summoning portal in front of her, eager to see what would be coming on.

She obviously wanted something powerful, something she could be proud of, but at this point, she would take anything. Even a common animal like a dog or a cat could be fine just fine, so as long as she finally at the proof that she was a noble, that even though she couldn't compare to the rest of her finally she wasn't just a commoner dressed like a noble. She just wanted to know that she could have hope for her future. She could dealt with whatever came later, with the students and with her mother, so as long as she still had her future.

And then, at the highest point, the place of connection-

Out this world. The vast void and other planets. The stars. Spinning, spinning, spinning. Outward, inward. Then, after an eternity or after a single second, complete, total blackness. She saw… no, not saw, sensed. She sensed the shape of thousands and thousands of crawling things in this darkness, moving, scratching, howling like beasts. Calling, calling out. Her name? Where they calling her name?

The thoughts faded away. Left, there was not even a sense of her own body. Not even a sense of life. Blackness had consumed her world. Her mind was poured out like water. Like, water.

 _ **YOU**_

 _Who are you? What have you done to me?_

 _ **DIE YOU DESERVE TO DIE**_

 _I don't…_

 _ **THEY ARE LAUGHING EVERYBODY IN THIS WORLD IS LAUGHING**_

 _That's…_

 _ **THEY ARE ALL SAYING YOU DESERVE TO DIE**_

 _Its… Its not like that._

 _ **DISAPPEAR YOU WORTHLESS EXISTENCE**_

 _ **YOU HAVE NO VALUE**_

 _ **YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF SELF**_

 _ **YOU HAVE NOTHING**_

 _ **DISSAPEAR**_

 _stop… stop, please_

 _ **EMBRACE THE DARKNESS**_

* * *

Louise woke up, back in her room, her eyes wide and staring up at the ceiling. What first crossed her mind was relief. She had finally woke up from that bad dream. Everything had gone so well, back then, that she hadn't even realized it was a dream in her excitement. And then whatever had happened, had happened, and she had seen and sensed terrible things with a stark clarity that didn't leave her even upon awakening.

But it had been just a simple nightmare, product of her stress and imagination. It was over now, and soon enough she would even forget it had happened in the first place, as all dreams were forgotten. Now, more important things awaited her. She was awake. So she had to get ready, go out and do it, summon a familiar for real.

Wait. The ceiling. She had only realized it just now, but the ceiling didn't look like the ceiling of her bedroom. She looked around, and saw that this wasn't her bedroom. This was a cell. She wasn't even laying down on a bed, but upon the ground and her waist were bound with manacles to the wall. Light came down from above her, a mage's light, but otherwise there was no illumination. If there was any room of doubt, she could clearly see the metal bars a few feet in front of her.

She started laughing quietly, to herself, and then the laugher rose in volume. She ignored the voice inside of her. She ignored that she knew this wasn't her room for the beginning, and she had only tried to delude herself like some kind of child. This… she hadn't woke up from that nightmare, yet. It felt so real, but it was only a nightmare. Only. A nightmare.

She tried to open her eyes, to wake up. She tried for so long that she lost track of the time, and nothing happened. Nothing at all. All that she had were this cool cell, the metal of the manacles digging into the skin of her waist, and the mage light above that it was so hot she was already sweating so much her clothes, her school uniform, was sticking to her skin. This. It wasn't a dream.

She screamed, and struggled uselessly against the manacles. She screamed, begged for help and tried to get out until her throat went raw and the only thing she could do was slump against the wall and cry to herself. There was nobody to heard her. There was nobody to help her. Just like always.

Louise Valliére was left there to rot. Her heart understood that faster that her mind, but eventually even her mind understood. That this, right until the end, was hopeless. She didn't know what she had done to deserve this, to deserve any of this, but she would have to dealt with it anyway.

There was no indication of the passing of time, and no rest, either. She was left alone with her own thoughts, and the only thing she could do was run herself ragged. She didn't have a wand on her, of course, so there was hardly anything she could do about her improvement. With the wand, at least she could blow up her bars. How ironic. She hadn't wanted for so long to do a spell right, to stop them for exploding in her face, but now she could have give up just about anything for a pair of explosions.

She could have laughed, but it wasn't funny at all.

Nobody came to see her, to explain what was going on. Not even to feed her. She thought she must have be there a for days, because she was very hungry, but she hadn't never gone a day in her life without eating plentifully, so who knew. Since there was nobody to talk to, she thought about why things had come to this point. She knew from the ridiculous notion of this being her mother's punishment for being a disgrace to her family name, to many other things, some which even made sense some sort of sense, but since was kept in the dark none of the possibilities she came up with truly convince her.

Her consciousness was thin, coming and going, and soon time blended together. She felt like she could have sleep for days, but every time she felt asleep those visions came back to her, waking her up instantly. She didn't felt alive at all. The next time the shards of her consciousness came together, was when the door of her cell was slammed open. She looked up, and saw armoured knights from the Church.

"What's..." her voice was ragged, sounding almost like rocks scraping together. "What's going on…."

They didn't answer. They took off the manacles, picked her up and two of them started dragging her away. The last one was behind them, wand raised, illuminated them. That again. It was a possibility she had considered before, of course. It was the only one that made sense, and yet it didn't make sense. Because, it couldn't have be real even though it had felt more real that her whole life. That darkness. The voice, the stars. Spinning, spinning, spinning. The things she had sensed, those hellish beats moving about, scratching, calling, calling out, as if ordering her to join them in that darkness. It couldn't have be real.

They took her out of the dungeons, into the light again. When she first saw a mirror, she looked at herself at it and intermediately looked away. That ragged appearance, those empty, dead eyes and the paleness of her face. It truly looked like she was dead already.

And for all intents and purposes, she already was.

* * *

For a prison to a prison to a prison to a prison. That was what her life boiled down to. That thought struck her when she was in another cell, shackled, the mage light burning above her head and she couldn't do anything but let out a bitter little laugh. First, the Valliére house. Mother, Father, Eleanore and, yes, even Cattleya. It had reminded her of what she could be, what she should be, but she wasn't. And other times, she didn't that to be remind of it, since the first three sure as hell took it as their job to constantly remind her of it. Like she couldn't forget.

Then, the school. It didn't even need to be said how bad that was. Their kindness had lasted until it became clear to everybody that her spells just blew up in her face, until they realized that they all could step on her pride without consequence, since she couldn't do anything.

Then, that cell in the dungeons of the school, where she had remained for days. Now, a cell in the Church, where she was to sit and wait to be burned at the stake in the next day or even a few hours for having a demon inside of her. She saw all her sixteen years of life, her struggles, the anxiety, fear and her tears… and realized they all were some bad joke.

Nobody came. Not her Mother, her Father, Eleanor and not even Cattleya. And when dawn broke, she was dragged out to her execution. She didn't struggle. She was scared of dying, scaring of the pain of being burned alive, scared of how long it would last. Of course. She was human. No matter how much she tried to pretend otherwise, she didn't have a heart of steel.

But she was more scared of what would come before. Not just how what would be waiting for her after her death, but of what they would said of her. That they would continue mocking her, belittled her, even after she was burned to death. That nobody would care that this could have happened to anybody. And, most of all, that she would be just a stain on her family name for eternity.

They send her outside, where the stake was already prepared, and chained her to the post. She didn't move, she didn't scream, she didn't beg them to stop. But she felt tears streaking down her face. Then, on view of the crowd, they lighted it on fire.

Right now, she felt like nothing could be worse that waiting. Seeing it raise, feeling it raise. Knowing that it was hopeless already, that there was no escape, and just waiting for it all to end. Then the flames reached her. The pain was strong that she couldn't think, she couldn't felt. All that there was in her mind was a horrible agony and the desperate desire to escape. She kicked, screamed and trashed, trying to escape.

Even though she fully knew it would be useless.

* * *

Blackness

Blackness

Blackness

Blackness

And slowly, out of nowhere, the blackness was painted over.

* * *

Louise's body was burned completely, but the soul… the soul remained. And there was still that, a connection. So It latched on to it. While keeping it her in her place, It reconstructed her body and took control of it in a matter of hours. How convenient. The rules that bound It had be completely skipped over, and the host wasn't there to make itself a nuisance. So, now.

Now it would do what it was meant to do.

* * *

Louise was playing around with Cattleya and Eleanor, after a hard day's work. They were simple, childish games, but that wasn't the point of it. The point of it was that this was time that they could spend together, and since they were family, a real family who all loved each other, they made the most out of their time.

The three of them all were beautiful, talented and graceful, almost idols everywhere they went. But right then, on the grounds of their family's residence, together, they were just three normal girls.

* * *

The first to fall was Tristania, simply because It was there. Its army of Darklings descended on the unsuspecting people, and tore them apart. They put on a show of resistance, but it was completely useless. Every single one of them were useless, and there wasn't an Angelus to get in Its way.

So it was easy. In the dark, It was the reaper. It killed, killed, killed and killed. Nothing could escape from its hands, nothing could escape from its eyes. It tore through their forces as if they were made paper, and extinguished each life. Those that opposed him and those that didn't. Spreading darkness.

* * *

Louise closed her eyes, and drew in a breath, her head resting on Cattleya's lap. Meanwhile, her sister softly ran her hands through her hair.

"Are you happy, my little Louise?" Cattleya asked her.

"Of course. What more could I ask for?"

"I'm glad." she confessed, her voice filled with warmness. "I'm happy, too. I'm happy so as long as you're with me, Louise."

"Yeah, things continuing like this forever…. It would be wonderful." something entered her voice. "We're going to be together forever, right?"

"I couldn't let you out of my sight."

Louise giggled at that, and Cattleya soon after started laughing with her.

* * *

Tristania had fallen. The kingdom was in shambles, their forces and their cities destroyed, and Its Darklings were taking care of the few people that still survived. Dawn was approaching, but it was all right. It wouldn't be a problem for long, and It could wait a few hours. There was nothing they could gather to hurt.

Soon.

Soon.

Soon darkness would spread all over this world, and It would devour it, make it disappear forever.

And after that, there was more life awaiting.

It wouldn't rest until everything was plunged back into the void, into Itself.


End file.
